Dress-stay



A. DACUS.

(N0 Model.)

DRESS STAY.

No. 440,140. Patented Nov. 11,1000.

6511945545, f K14-m UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

AUGUSTA DAOUS, OF SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS.

DRESS-STAY.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 440,140, dated November 11, 1890. Application filed May 29, 1890. Serial No. 353,649. (No model.)

To a/ZZ whom, it may concern:

Be it known that I, AUGUSTA DAcUs, a citizen of the United States, residing at San Antonio, in the county of Bexar and State of Texas, have invented a new and useful Dress-Stay, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to dress-stays which are adapted for use along the inside of seams in garments; and the object thereof is to avoid the use of paste or stitches in connection with the application of the stay, as well as to provide a stay which may be readily detached and reattached in case it be desired to change the location of the seam in order to make the garment either larger or smaller.

To this end the invention consists in a staybody of steel, Whalebone, or some other resilient material inclosed Within a suitable casing, and Wire fasteners passing through said body, through the outer side of said casing, and through the edges of the seam at either side of the latter, all as hereinafter more fully described, and illustrated in the drawings, in Which- Figure 1 is a plan view of the outer face of a section of my improved stay before its application to the garment. Fig. 2 is a similar View of the inner face thereof with a portion of the casing removed. Fig. 3 is a perspective view showing the manner in which the stay is applied to the inside of a garmentseam. Fig. ais an enlarged transverse section on the line 4 et of Fig. 3.

Referring to the said drawings, the letter B designates the body of this improved stay, which may be of Whalebone, steel, or other suitable resilient material, and O is the casing inclosing the same, and either sewed or pasted thereto, as preferred,the inner face of the casing being preferably of silk or some other material which will ornament the interior of the garment to which the stay is applied.

F are fasteners, of flexible wire, whose bodies are passed through the body B of the stay from its inner face before the silk is applied thereto, and whose pointed ends E project above the stay, as seen in the drawings, and stand near each edge thereof, the fasteners being preferably loca-ted about an inch apart throughout the length of the stay.

The application of this stay to a seam is as' follows: The cloth,O being sewed along the seam S by hand or machine stitches, the stay is applied to the rear face of the edges G of the seam, the points of the fasteners F being passed through the edges G and turned down, as seen in Fig. 3, when the stay will be securely held in position, and the cloth of the garment will be preventedirom wrinkling at the seam, as is desired, and elsewhere throughout the garment, if the stays be applied to each seam. It will be understood, of course, that each seam must have been pressed before the stays are applied, and also that the cloth must be drawn smooth when the stay is applied. With a stay constructed as above described, when it is desired to open the seam, as for the purpose of increasing or decreasing the size of a garment, or for substituting another piece of cloth for that at one or both sides of the seam, all that is necessary is simply to straighten out the ends E of the fasteners F throughout the length of the stay and Withdraw the latter bodily from the garment, in a manner which will be clearly understood by any dress-maker or seamstress.

These stays may be manufactured in suitable lengths and sold in the same manner that ordinary stays have been heretofore put upon the market, and their use will be clearly understood.

Vhat I claim is- The herein-described garment-stay, the same comprising a resilient body, a fabric cover secured around the saine, and iieXible wire fasteners whose bodies standl between the stay-body and the inner face of the cover and whose pointed ends extend outwardly through the resilient body and through the outer face of the cover, the whole being adapted for use substantially as set forth.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing as my own I have hereto affixed my signature in presence of two witnesses.

AUGUSTA DAOUS.

Witnesses:

T. B. GILLELAND, K. F. ANDERSON. 

